(Closed) Unplugged wedding – sort of

I was not sure where to put this, but what I want to ask is – how do I ask people to turn OFF their phones for the ceremony, but still bring cameras? I don’t really want camera phone pictures – I don’t have a camera in my phone, well I do, but no idea how to use it, but the ones I have seen are not good quality. I already have an awesome pair of photographers for the entire day, but I do want those candid shots from the guests. So how do I word this in the invites?

Some people only have a camera phone, so I don’t think you can ask people to do that. I have a big camera but I don’t like to drag it with me because its bulky. I think you’d prefer having people with camera phones snap pictures (and like a PP said, my iphone camera is better than most handheld digi cameras these days) than have me with my big dlsr taking shots and competing with your photographer

You can definitely make an announcement before the ceremony asking people to turn off their phones. Many people use their phone as a primary camera (mine has a 7 MP camera!), so they may just silence it and use it to take photos. Ask people to send you any photos they take and you can just delete the poor quality ones yourself.

Agree with PP’s about a lot of people using their phones as camera’s, so maybe you can make a sign or if you’re having programs have a note that asks them to “silence” their phones so everyone can enjoy the ceremony.

I am a little bit confused. You want guests to take photos, but they are not allowed to use the camera that is built into their phone in order to take these photos? Is there a particular reason why you are making this distinction? Is there a reason why guests should not be allowed to use their camera of choice? Are you concerned with things being instantly posted to facebook or some other social media site? Do you want to make the guest photos into an album and are concerned about picture quality? Are you concerned about a phone accidentally ringing during the ceremony? We may be able to give better advice with a bit more information. 🙂

FWIW, we had an “unplugged wedding” sign near the enterance to our ceremony space, a note in the program, and an announcement/reminder right before the ceremony began. We had some serious tech junkies on our guest list, and some rather absentminded folks as well, so we felt like multiple layers of reminders were necessary.